Once upon a time, I was a Lazy Lady. In 2011, I decided to train for a half-marathon and since then, I've done 5ks, 10ks, 15ks, a few trail runs and over ten half-marathons! I haven't lost my focus though; I'm still lazy, and I'm still frugal, so please pull up a chair and join me in my continuing endeavor to be healthy, frugal and happy!

Tabs

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Check out my rack!

After getting my first medal from my 10k in St Augustine, I began thinking about how I wanted to display them. I googled around, looking at medal racks, but none of them really spoke to me, They were either too extravagant or too boring! The crafty part of me began wondering if I could make one myself – it would probably be cheaper, and more personal.

I let that simmer over the holidays and after the Princess, I began to think about it again. I went to Home Depot (to get a broiler unit for my oven), and looked at hooks and stuff like that. I began to formulate a plan!

I returned to HD a few weeks later (when I was ready to buy everything I needed) and got a piece of MDF (HD cut it for free, so I got a piece for my medal shelf, and two pieces I can turn into shelving somewhere later), some purple spray paint and 2 three-hook racks. AtWalmart, I got some Command wire hooks. On Amazon, I got a great vinyl decal. I already owned the hardware to mount it and some glue.

First, I painted the piece of wood with a few coats of purple spray paint. Once it was completely dry, I applied the vinyl decal. (You know how you usually use something like a credit card to apply decals like these? I used an old Key to the World card!)

The hardest part of all this was trying to decide on the layout for the hooks. I ended up doing a few different layouts and taking photos of each one, then deciding that way.

Once I decided on a layout, I used some LocTite Power Grab to glue the robe hooks to the piece of wood. Then let it dry.

Now the fun part – getting it up on the wall! I made sure it was level and screwed in the first screw to the robe hook, going through the robe hooks, through the MDF and into the wall stud. I repeated with the other 3 screws that came with the robe hooks and tapped in the little screw cover knobs.

Next, I screwed the top of the MDF into the wall. In hindsight, I should have drilled first so that I wouldn’t have any ‘blowback’ from the MDF, but it doesn’t look too horrible. I taped off the entire area and gave the two screws a hit of spray paint so that they would fit in and not stick out (the screw caps I bought sucked, so I didn’t use them).

Once it was up on the wall, I adhered two Command wire hooks (already painted purple) to the MDF. These were for my bibs.

I laminated my bibs, and used a hole punch to punch holes so that they could be hung. On the back of each bib, I put on a label that had the name of the race, the date of the race and my official time.

Just basic file folder labels

I hung them chronologically, with the oldest one in the back, and the newest one on top.

All in all, I am very happy with the way it turned out.I wish I’d had room to center the bibs above the two robe hooks, but this way is good too.

I only have 2 medals – SO FAR – that I can hang on there,
but I plan on filling it up!For now,
though, it can double as a Bondi Band holder!

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About Me

I started this blog as a 34-year old mom of 1, wife of 15 years. I was unemployed, poor and unhappy. While I was unemployed, I used my time to learn how to live frugally.In 2012, it went from Frugal to Changing - I was ready to teach myself how to run a half-marathon!Now it's kind of just an amalgam of all things frugal, running, healthy and everything in between! Come along for the ride!